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Monday, June 25, 2012

Out of Control

As many of you may have already noticed, we removed the foosball table. For some of you that might be a sigh of relief, as your children begged to play as soon as you walked through the door. For others it might be quite a disappointment, as many of you enjoyed it. Well, there are a few reasons that lead to it's fair well. For one, it was getting destroyed. One of our employees was kind enough to lend it to the public, and after just a few months we noticed its deterioration. Two, there were many people not following the rules. The most important rule being no children under ten, unless accompanied by an adult. We made that rule after a child fell off a bench and hurt his head while playing alone. Which leads me to the third and main reason, it was too dangerous! Since kids were unaccompanied by an adult, and the height of the handles and force of an opposing child aiming for the ball was the perfect recipe for a black eye or a breath taking jolt to the wind pipe. I am sure most of you can understand why we felt it was necessary to remove it from the premises.
With that said, I would like to continue with that thought and ask that parents be more cautious in general about their children in the restaurant. When Emily and I set out to open Girasole, we wanted to create an establishment that was cozy and welcoming to all, including family's. We both have young children and live in the area, so we understood the need for a restaurant that could accommodate a family and larger groups. However, there have been many days in the last year and a half that we have almost regretted making it child friendly.
It's not the kids that we don't like, we love them! There are many kids we know by name and look forward to seeing week after week. But sometimes I truly cannot believe the jaw dropping behavior we have seen. Here is a brief list of some of the shocking moments: running around barefoot, dumping our card games into water glasses, crawling underneath other customers tables, running back into the kitchen or out the front door unnoticed by their parents, hanging from the foosball table handles, standing in the middle of the foosball table, hitting our servers, ear peircing screams throughout an entire meal, and jumping on and off our glass topped door tables.
I try and be understanding of parents when their children misbehave, but when a child's safety is compromised because parents aren't being mindful I have no patience. Girasole may be child friendly, but not child proof. Please, please understand that this comes from a loving place. If you think you may be one of these parents, we are kindly asking you to remember it is a restaurant, not Chucky Cheese.